Using P2P technology - which allows computers to communicate without using a central server - will significantly increase computing capabilities for scientific researchers at a substantially reduced cost, Intel said.
With the Philanthropic Peer-to-Peer Program, Intel is aiming to create the world's largest "virtual supercomputer", which will donate unused computing cycles to medical research.
The program, launched in conjunction with Stanford University and the Alzheimer's Association, will allow any PC user to download screensavers that run in the background when the computer is on, but not in use.
After running the downloaded file, the program is installed on the user's computer and automatically begins computing, running whenever computing resources are available. Once processing is complete, typically a day later, the program sends the results back to Stanford University and requests a new packet of data the next time the user connects to the Internet.